LOCALITIES FOR COLLECTING. 27 



The sierras being too far distant, cannot be worked from 

 Gibraltar ; it is necessary to go to Algeciraz, Facinas, Pulverilla, 

 or some cortijo near the hills you wish to work. Very deceptive 

 in appearance, looking quite low and easy to ascend, it takes 

 three or four hours to reach their tops, which, bare, rugged, 

 and wild beyond description, are alone worth visiting for the 

 view, which, always grand, on a clear day is magnificent, that 

 from the Penon del Fraile to the west of Algeciraz being one of 

 the finest. From these mountains run down numerous wooded 

 valleys (gargantas) clothed with cork and oak trees, many of very 

 large size, though badly mutilated by being lopped by charcoal- 

 burners. The rocky streams which flow down these valleys are 

 fringed with rhododendron, arbutus, holly, hawthorn, laurestinus, 

 oleander, bay, myrtle, giant heather, cistus, and many sorts of 

 ferns, conspicuous amongst them being the Osmunda and maiden- 

 hair, while here and there is an occasional Caladium with its huge 

 leaves reminding one in shape of elephant's ears : the leaves of 

 this plant, called Jwjas de llama, are much used by the country 

 people as a medicine for fevers ; many of the rocks and all the 

 trunks of the cork-trees are festooned with hare's-foot fern 

 (calaguala), also used medicinally. 



In spring these ravines are, from their natural beauty and 

 the colour of these various shrubs and flowers, so picturesque 

 that one cannot help lingering about them merely to admire the 

 charming scenery, becoming apt to forget the birds for which 

 one is in search. These places are seldom visited by an 

 Englishman, only by stray smugglers, goatherds, and charcoal- 

 burners ; and every pass, hill, valley, in fact every well-marked 

 situation, has its name, many more familiar to me than the 

 streets of London. 



Those valleys most worth visiting near Gibraltar are the 

 Garganta del Capitan, to the north-west of Algeciraz, on the 

 way to Ojen by the mountain-path of la Trocha, which is 

 within easy distance (five or six miles) of Algeciraz. The valley 



